Truck tractors have various hoses and electrical cables, collectively referred to as conduits, which extend from the rear of the tractor (cab) to engage a trailer, such as which is further supported in articulating fashion behind the tractor. The purposes of these hoses includes operation of brakes, lights and other equipment installed on or in the truck trailers. Various lengths of hoses and cables are needed to connect the truck tractor with each respective truck trailer, and the required length varies depending upon the angular orientation of the tractor and the trailer during operation.
As demonstrated in prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,861, the distance between the hose cable connecting points on a truck tractor and a truck trailer in a straight forward horizontally aligned position, with the truck trailer directly behind the truck tractor, is less than when, in a turning or maneuvering position, the track tractor is turned at a substantial angle to the truck trailer. It is a common feature of vehicles in the tucking industry that hoses and cables are constructed of lengths which will easily accommodate the longest anticipated distance between the connection access points of each truck tractor and the corresponding truck trailer.
When hoses are of sufficient length to accommodate the longest possible distance, there is usually a significant amount of slack when the truck tractor and the track trailer are horizontally aligned. In this particular orientation, unless sufficiently supported, these hoses are subject to damage from a variety of sources, including abrasion, kinking, as well as being susceptible to being improperly engaged with other projections or obstructions on the truck or trailer body surface while hanging loosely, and potentially severed or otherwise damaged when the alignment between the truck tractor and the truck trailer is again changed.
As reference to the prior art demonstrates, prior hose supports include those with rail connections directed to the rear side of a tractor's cab. In such applications, a spring or strap is slidably mounted on a first end to the rail. A second end of the strap or spring engages the hoses and cables near their midpoint suspending them above the truck's frame. During maneuvers tending to tension the hoses and cables, the first end of the strap or spring moves laterally along the rail allowing the hose or cables to be suspended above the frame of the truck without developing excess tension. These types of supports may communicate undesired vibrations into the cab from road-induced movement of the cables, particularly if springs are employed. Other disadvantages include the fact that the length of the hoses are cables extending beyond the support may be too long for the rail to adequately support the hoses and cables when they are uncoupled from the trailer.
Another device known to the prior art is a vertically aligned post or rod device, mounted to the tractor frame on a spring base, which engages the hoses and cables approximately mid-way between the tractor and trailer. The spring base allows the support post to be bendably resilient. Such applications, similar to the within invention, do not transmit vibrations directly into the cab. The hoses or cables cause the post to bend or pivot relative to its base with the tractor and trader at an angle to each other and thereby prevents the development or undesirable levels of tension. When the tractor is again aligned with the trailer, the spring restores the post to an upright position. As with the rail support, when a tractor and the hoses and cables are disconnected from the trailer, they may hang lower than desired, making them vulnerable to be damage or to damage other components.
Prior art applications of spring-base mounted supports, however, have either not allowed a complete 90° pivot at the base, or have been too flexible to immediately return the vertical support member to upright status. Further, previous applications which have involved compression springs and bolts or other one-piece retaining devices have resulted in permanently bending the support bolts if the compression springs were compressed closed to the point which would have allowed the upright vertical support member to bend to 90°, from its vertical position.
The post-type, spring-based applications, to date, however, typically lack sufficient ability to both incline a sufficient distance from the vertical position, under tension, and in so doing, retain the ability to return immediately to the vertical, concurrent with the realignment of the tractor truck and track trailer. Likewise, the mounts provided in the prior art atop such posts or pedestal-type applications may kink the hoses or cables, and do not allow or provide an optimum, radial, support for the hoses or cables, either at rest or under tension. Further, prior applications which have the hose retaining device or cradle rigidly affixed to a support member, from the standpoint of durability of the device itself, tend to break, or bend, under pressure.